Siuslaw’s Jacob Mitchell blows through Cottage Grove’s defense Friday night at Florence. World Photo by Madeline Steege.

FLORENCE - Cottage Grove played a brutal preseason schedule and then faced the best of the Sky-Em League while finishing third in that conference. But the Lions had seen nothing like what they faced against Siuslaw Friday night.

“Plain and simple ... they're the finest team we've played all year,” said Cottage Grove coach Randy Fisher after the Vikings beat the Lions 55-7 in the second round of the Class 4A playoffs Friday night. “They have my vote to win it.”

The next step toward a possible state title comes next weekend, when the Vikings travel to Central in the quarterfinals.

Their first playoff game was a good sign.

Siuslaw led from the start and never gave Cottage Grove a chance.

“We did exactly what our game plan was,” said Siuslaw quarterback Jacob Mitchell. “We came out right off the bat and went right at them.”

Siuslaw took exactly one play from scrimmage to score - and the Vikings didn't even start with the ball.

On the opening play of the first drive, Cottage Grove quarterback Bryant Sentman faked a handoff, rolled to the right and passed a ball into the flat, right into the arms of Siuslaw's James DiCarlo.

The senior cradled the ball, looked across the field toward the opposite sideline and saw mostly daylight.

“I looked over and saw there were only a few people and one of my teammates,” DiCarlo said. “(Joel Bechtold) gave me a good block.”

By the time he was done, DiCarlo had gone 18 yards for the score and Kody Thrall's extra point kick gave Siuslaw a 7-0 lead.

“Our touchdown the first play was huge for our momentum and we kept it going,” Mitchell said.

The Vikings had expected Cottage Grove to pound the ball at them and DiCarlo said he was surprised to see a pass on the first play. But he added the Vikings were ready.

“The good thing about our defense is we're very versatile,” he said.

Unfortunately for Cottage Grove, the opening was only a bad omen of things to come, including a total of five turnovers.

“The ball bounces funny ways,” said Siuslaw coach Tim Dodson. “Obviously, tonight the ball bounced in our direction every time.

“That doesn't happen very often. You have to be thankful for that and put it away and move on.”

The first Siuslaw bounce actually came before the interception. The Vikings' opening kickoff appeared to be heading out of bounds, but instead landed and took a big hop toward the end zone, then stopped dead on the 1-yard line, forcing the Lions' Bobby Krasneski to try a return. He only made it 13 yards before being swarmed under by Siuslaw's downfield pursuers.

DiCarlo's touchdown was followed by another good break for the Vikings.

Cottage Grove faced a fourth-and-one from its own 39 and Fisher decided to go for it. Sentman took a step back and prepared to hand off to Eric Anderson, but Anderson slipped on the turf. Sentman took off to the outside, but was stopped short of the first down marker.

Thrall capped a five-play Siuslaw drive with a 1-yard plunge over the right side of the line and the Vikings led 14-0.

Cottage Grove followed with one of its best drives of the evening, but on the 14th play, Sentman rolled out to pass and fumbled under pressure from DiCarlo. Zach Priest recovered for Siuslaw.

Cottage Grove got the ball right back when a pass from Mitchell was intercepted by Bobby Edwards, but Sentman again fumbled and Luke Sims recovered at Cottage Grove's 17.

This time, it took just one play for Mitchell to score on a quarterback keeper.

The Vikings added another touchdown on a short pass from Mitchell to Drew Rainwater just before halftime and eliminated any chance of Cottage Grove getting momentum in the second half when David Mesa took a handoff on the first play from scrimmage and sprinted down the right sideline untouched for a 68-yard score.

Mesa gave all the credit on the run to the big boys up front.

“It's the blockers,” he said. “Without the blockers, I wouldn't do anything.”

Siuslaw added touchdowns on its next three possessions - a short run by Thrall, a pass from Mitchell to Jordan Rainwater and a 38-yard scurry by third-string tailback Sean Campbell before Mitchell's night was over and the offense went conservative for the final quarter.

Campbell set up Thrall's touchdown by stealing an interception from Cottage Grove's Chuck McLeod and returning it 53 yards.

That was just one of many big plays by Siuslaw's defense, which also sacked Sentman six times and limited Cottage Grove to 46 rushing yards on 48 attempts.

“Our defense is huge,” Mitchell said. “Our defense gives us awesome field position and opens up our playbook to what we can do. You've got to give it to the defense.”

Dodson said Friday's game showed the dramatic improvement this season by Siuslaw's front line.

“We have said since the beginning that our offensive and defensive front needed time to grow,” he said. “They have really improved. I have not seen an offensive front like Cottage Grove and we controlled them.”

Fisher had the same assessment from the other sideline.

“We have not been physically dominated like that,” he said.

The Lions did give their large visiting crowd something to cheer about in the final quarter when Sentman drove the team 80 yards, including four completions, to set up Taylor McCall's 2-yard scoring run.

But the game was long over by then and Siuslaw's starters were on the bench, knowing they will be playing another week.

The game plan against Central will be the same, Mesa said.

“We'll keep doing like we did every other game this year,” he said. “It's been working so far.”

“Our team has been very consistent,” said Mitchell. “We just come out and do a great job.”

Notes: Cottage Grove actually had more first downs than Siuslaw - 11 to 9 - and ran 61 offensive plays to just 36 for the Vikings. ... Thrall was the only Viking with more than four carries, rushing six times for 44 yards. Mesa had 67 yards on three carries to lead the team. ... Central beat host Molalla 19-8 on Friday.